Film, TV & Streaming

Miami Filmmakers Represent at MIFF

As news of Hugo Chávez’s death spread across South Florida, last night was a good night to see a movie about the end of a dictatorship. A packed house attended the Miami premiere of No, Chilean director Pablo Larraín’s final film in his Pinochet trilogy. The Miami International Film Festival…

The nominations for the MTV Movie Awards, announced last night, are decided by executives and producers at MTV. Ostensibly, the choices are designed for maximum appeal to the channel’s viewers. This year, two movies are tied for the most nominations: Django Unchained and Ted. That makes one of MTV’s most…

If you want to see the power of cinema at its best, watch a film by Robert Bresson. The young actor/director Brady Corbet knows this, and he will take advantage of his pedestal at this year’s Miami International Film Festival to express it by presenting what he thinks is one…

Twenty Feet from Stardom, the Miami International Film Festival’s opening-night film, was jaw-dropping. Venus and Serena, its closer, has superstar power. But if you’re hoping to see the MIFF entry that earned the most headlines this year, it’s Dark Blood, the final film starring the ’90s acting wunderkind who died…

Viggo Mortensen is a man of secrets. He might be best known as Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings series, but his most memorable performances on film have been in the roles of men whose lives are ruled by dark secrets: take A History of Violence and Eastern Promises,…

What’s that you say, Mildly Xenophobic Film Fan? If you wanted to read while people make incomprehensible noises for two hours, you’d plop down on the least sticky Metromover seat and take a couple of laps with the latest Life & Style? Well, get off at the Omni Terminal and…

I know what you’re thinking: Of course Kourtney & Kim Take Miami is a sexist TV show. The Kardashians’ fame stems from sex tapes and selling unrealistic body images. Saying Kourtney & Kim is good for women is like saying the IKEA’s Swedish meatballs are good for horses. I watch…

The Olympia Theater hosted the world premiere of The Boy Who Smells Like Fish at the Miami International Film Festival Saturday. The comedy is about, well, a boy who smells like fish. The boy in question, played by Big Love’s Douglas Smith, isn’t doing anything untoward with your ceviche while…

You might think you don’t know Darlene Love. But you’re wrong. You’ve heard her on hits starting in the ’60s — songs like “He’s a Rebel,” Da Doo Ron Ron,” and “Christmas Baby Please Come Home.” When you think of that oldies girl group sound, it’s her voice you’re thinking…

Hollywood filmmakers have made weddings the ultimate goal in romances for so long it almost feels cliché to note the cliché. But weddings only signal the start of something often far too complex and intimidating for most filmmakers to explore. Argentine director Carlos Jaureguialzo offers a fine take on the…

“You know what I love about Miami? Everybody’s dirty. And if you want to make any money, you gotta get dirty too.” This line of dialogue, from Jokes Yanes’ screenplay to his intense Miami-shot directorial debut Eenie Meenie Miney Moe, may as well be the film’s thesis statement. At more…

Identity theft sucks. But it sucks even worse when your pretty face is stolen by a known prostitute who’s wanted by the cops. That’s the crappy storyline for former reality TV personality and Bad Girls Club Miami star Tasha Malek this week. Malek, who turned in her bad girl ways…

It’s a bittersweet time to be a geek. On one hand, mainstream media is finally wising up to our beloved stories and giving them life through films at an unprecedented rate. On the other hand, mainstream media is wising up to our beloved stories and is “giving them life” through…

MIFF’s Jaie Laplante Talks Cinema at the Intersection of Hollywood and Latin America

MIFF 2013: Murder, Marriage, and Madness in This Week’s Biggest Movies

Jack the Giant Slayer Movie Review: Fee-Fi-Fo-Fun

I Do and I Don’t: A History of Marriage in the Movies Book Review

21 and Over Movie Review: Dares You to Get Offended

Dark Blood: River Phoenix’s Last Movie Premieres in Miami 20 Years After His Death

Like the phoenix of his name, River has risen again, exhumed for one last movie. The James Dean of Generation X, actor River Phoenix died in 1993 at age 23 from a drug overdose. Now, 20 years later, the movie he was shooting at the time of his passing, Dark…

When River Phoenix died in October 1993, he was three weeks away from completing his performance in Dark Blood, an $8 million indie film making its North American premiere at the Miami International Film Festival March 6. The production had already done five weeks of shooting on location in southern…